Blackman Guy Alefe Santos Bennett. Houghton Evina Longbottom Mandeville Keegan. The first round had 12 knockout ties in each section, and the second had six.

A major change was introduced for the —86 tournament , with 8 three-team groups being set up in each of the two sections. Teams played one home and one away game and the group winners proceeded to the regional knockout stages.

For a number of seasons in the early to mids, the competition ran with only seven three-team groups, two teams in each section receiving a bye into the knockout stages.

The group phase was abolished for the —97 tournament ; instead, 8 teams in each section received a bye to the second round, where they were joined by the 8 winners of the first-round ties.

The number of Conference entrants was increased to 12 starting in —03 , resulting in 14 first-round ties, and two teams in each regional section gaining a bye into the second round.

Conference teams no longer participated from the —07 tournament onward, and the format reverted to 8 first-round teams in each section, with 8 sides gaining byes to the second round.

The competition has always been contested by all teams at Levels Three and Four of the English football league system. Between —01 and —06 the competition was also open to a certain number of Football Conference sides.

These are listed by season below: Since the addition of the Category One academies, the following sides have competed in the competition:.

The first final in was to have been played at the then Wembley Stadium , but owing to damage caused to the pitch during the Horse of the Year Show [ dubious — discuss ] , it was moved to Boothferry Park in Hull.

From to , during the rebuilding of the former Wembley, the Football League Trophy finals were played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The record attendance for the final is 80,, for the Final match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley at Wembley. The highest attendance for any game outside of the final came on 5 February for the Northern Area final, when Coventry City lost to Crewe Alexandra 3—0 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry they later won the away leg 2—0, going down 3—2 on aggregate , in front of a crowd of 31, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.